The Samara Story

"Twenty years ago, we fell in love."

It was a very strange feeling because it was totally unprompted and quite unexpected. A battlefield is not normally the sort of place one associates with affairs of the heart. However, the battle sites of Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift in KwaZulu-Natal must have inspired some primal emotions that led to conduct quite markedly in contrast to our normal, rational behaviour.

After a long dinner accompanied by several glasses of superb South African Cabernet up in Northern Natal, the site of British triumph and Zulu tragedy, we started chatting to a chap from quite a different part of South Africa – the Great Karoo. Magical tales were woven about the millions of springbok that once roamed this area, the Cape lion who majestically reigned over the Plains of Camdeboo, the rhino, the cheetah, the now-extinct quagga, the explorers, the characters of yesteryear and the haunting beauty of the semi-desert land.

Overwhelmed and humbled by the magnificence of it all, we went away totally and completely smitten by the Great Karoo.

Monkey Valley became the first farm that formed the nucleus of Samara Private Game Reserve and twenty years ago we happily became its owner.

The dream continued – amass enough land to create a self-sustaining ecosystem that could carry game: the herds of antelope that used to inhabit this area, and the predators to keep the balance that helps maintain these fragile environments.

Tens of thousands of acres and twenty years later, Samara’s dream continues to develop and evolve in the Eastern Cape’s Great Karoo. The land was allowed to rest for many years and is slowly beginning to recover from the effects of generations of agricultural exploitation. The haunting beauty of the landscape that first inspired Samara’s campaign of rejuvenation has been allowed to return.

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Samara Private Game Reserve is a luxury safari destination situated in the Great Karoo, north of the end of the Garden Route, a 40-minute drive from the historical town of Graaff-Reinet, rich in culture and heritage.

Samara Private Game Reserve, Petersburg Road, off the R63 to Pearston, near Graaff-Reinet, Eastern Cape, 6280

Having trouble finding us? Why not use what3words, a global addressing system that has divided the world into 3 m x 3 m squares and given each a 3 word address. This means that everywhere in the world has an address, including our front gate. View Samara on what3words.com– our 3 word address is ///rosters.plots.famous